Crafting+digital+presentations,+audio,+and+video+texts

Crafting Digital Writing (Troy Hicks) ch. 4-6

In chapter 4, Hicks gives suggestions for how to help students create and perform meaningful digital p resentations. He laments, "there is no excuse for power pointless presentations" (p. 61). Using Robin Williams' principals of design- contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity- we must help students see that the visual aspect of their presentation should enhance their message instead of distract from it. I love the idea of using a mentor "text" such as a great TED talk to give students some ideas for good presentations. This may help them get away from the common practices of copying and pasting chunks of text into powerpoint slides, using bulleted lists, and reading directly from the slide. I also love Hicks' idea of using presentation software for narrative writing (p. 68). I plan to suggest this idea during Young Writer's Campthis week!

Chapter 5 focuses on crafting audio texts. According to Hicks' observations and conversations with teachers, audio texts are not being used very often in classrooms. I think some reasons for this are that audio texts can be time consuming and tricky to edit. Hicks suggests that students record small sections of audio at a time, in order to make the editing more manageable (p. 98). He also suggests letting students "play" with audio (sound effects, voices, etc.) for a prescribed amount of time- it should not be the focus of the project, but it should enhance the content and message. Using mentor texts like NPR's //This American Life// or //Radio Lab// is a great way to show students how to make effective podcasts.

Hicks focuses on crafting video texts in chapter 6 and begins with an important question: "How do we invite our students to become both smart consumers of video texts, and, as digital writers, smart producers of them as well?" (p. 105). He encourages teachers to implement video text projects with students even though it can be time consuming, pointing out several Common Core standards that encourage the consumption and production of digital products like videos. Hicks suggests that video texts can be used to create narrative, informational, and argumentative communication (p. 109). I'm curious as to what Hicks thinks about brand new apps such as Vine and Instagram (the video component is new) that make video creating super easy and fast. Perhaps these tools could be applied in the classroom if students are allowed to use their own smart phones.